An Examination of Retributive Justice: Does it Have Merit?
Open Access
- Author:
- Xue, Rachel
- Area of Honors:
- Philosophy
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Désirée Lim, Thesis Supervisor
Uygar Abaci, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Justice
Retributive justice
Punishment
Desert
Normative ethics
Moral philosophy
Penal philosophy
Criminal justice
Legal philosophy
John Rawls
History of punishment
Ethics - Abstract:
- This paper explores the concept of retributive justice and whether it is defensible as a guiding principle of punishment. While retributive justice is intuitively appealing to many people, and many modern scholars have defended retributive justice from a variety of normative perspectives, proponents overlook the downsides of a backward-looking system of justice. In this paper, I will argue that retributive justice is theoretically incoherent and practically unfeasible as a theory of justice. By exploring its historical development and its prevalence in the penal system of the United States, I aim to provide a descriptive foundation of retributive justice from which I can mount my argument against its practice. To support my argument, I will evaluate the justifications provided by major modern retributivists, namely Michael Moore, Herbert Morris, and Jean Hampton, and explain why their arguments are unsound.
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